Linen Invocation

There are only so many pillows I can buy
   in place of you.  You'd say
            don't hide.  I say
                                        they're the only reason
            I step outside.

This morning, it was ten degrees
hotter than that August day          you left.
                                                 An old man said
                          it was winter.  There was nothing

so tall as the trees
when we hiked foothills near Nagisa.
There was nothing
                                 like trees    today.